After scoring a 195.850 at the Southeastern Conference Championships, the University of Kentucky gymnastics team overtook
Michigan State for the No. 5 spot in the Central Region and qualified for the opening round of NCAA gymnastics action. The
26th-ranked GymKats will travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the regional championships on Saturday, April 7. Joining UK will be No. 4
Alabama, No. 9 Arizona State, No. 16 Minnesota, No. 20 Kent State and No. 21 Ohio State.

"We are very pleased with our performances and are glad to be in," Coach Leah Little said. "This will be our third time
competing on Alabamas equipment. This season we have performed well each time, and being in front of their crowd, I think their
fans will support us as another SEC team. We will start on the uneven bars, which is the draw we wanted. This field is strong, and we
have already seen Bama and ASU. We are just excited to be here and will be ready to compete."

Only 36 teams qualified for regional competitions, and the top 18 were seeded and distributed among the six regions. As a
result, No. 18 Louisiana State was sent out of the Central Region to the North East Region, while ASU was placed in the Central
from the South Central and Minnesota came from the North Central.

UK has faced the Crimson Tide twice this season. On Feb. 24, the GymKats nearly pulled off the upset, leading the Tide going
into the fourth rotation. However, UA put together a strong score on the floor exercise to top UK, 195.900-195.825. The two
teams ran into one another again this past weekend at the SEC Championships where Alabama scored a 197.425 to finish second,
while UKs total of 195.850 was good for fifth.

The GymKats and Sun Devils meet two weeks ago at a quad meet at ASU. UK finished third in the meet scoring a 194.350
while ASU totaled 195.575. In that meet, UK topped No. 12 Iowa, a team that also qualified for regional competition.

Action is set to get under way at 6 p.m. CST at Coleman Coliseum on Alabamas campus.